Winemaker Notes
#33 Wine Spectator Top 100 of 2022
Soter Vineyards Estates Pinot Noir offers aromas of wild cherry pit, blueberry skins, and black pepper. Primary flavors of dark cherry, Oregon grape, and wild blueberry. Secondary flavors of fruit leather and brown baking spice. The finish is round with grippy tannins.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
A complex, gorgeously fruity and balanced pinot with dried strawberry and raspberry, as well as hints of citrus and hibiscus. Shows intensity and brightness, with a curated and textured mid-palate. Essentially from three vineyards in the three key AVAs: Eola Amity, Mineral Spring and Ribbon Ridge.
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Wine Spectator
A wine with dimension and grace, this Pinot has tiers of raspberry, mineral and dusky spice that build expression and tension toward refined tannins. Drink now
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Wine Enthusiast
This wine is finesse personified. Its black-currant aroma is subtle, with herbal notes such as basil and thyme competing for air space. The nose also has a nice burst of fresh, clean saline. The wine’s silky tannins and elevated acidity easily balance the black cherry and blueberry sorbet fruit flavors. Little touches of cinnamon spice and homemade bitters float in the background
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2019 Estates Pinot Noir is brooding with aromas of cedar, fresh leather, and cherry liqueur. The palate offers a silky texture with fine tannins, dark black raspberry fruit, scorched earth, and pine.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2019 Pinot Noir Estates is scented of red cherries, cranberries, earth and spice. The medium-bodied palate is soft, bright and spicy with lush fruit and a long, spicy finish.
Tony Soter is the founder of Soter Vineyards at Mineral Springs Ranch in Yamhill-Carlton, Oregon. Soter is a Portland, Oregon, native who began his remarkable 40-year winemaking career in the Napa Valley. After graduating from Pomona College in southern California with a degree in philosophy, Soter joined the staff at Stag's Leap Wine Cellars in 1975 to learn the trade. By 1982, he released his own wine under the Etude label, selling the winery almost 20 years later to Treasury Wine Estates. In the meantime, Soter worked as consulting winemaker for such world-famous Napa estates as Araujo (now Eisele), Chappellet, Dalla Valle, Shafer, and Spottswoode, among others. After almost 30 years in California, Soter moved back to Oregon and founded Soter Vineyards in 1997, where he is still making some of the most heralded pinot noirs in the state.
Today, Soter focuses on biodynamic grape growing to create rich flavors and substance. His cellar techniques look to the wisdom of past generations, trusting those natural processes to evoke the voice and character of each vineyard.
There are three distinct labels produced by Soter:
1. SOTER VINEYARDS ... Illustrious estate-grown wines from Eola Amity, Ribbon Ridge, and Yamhill Carlton (where the Mineral Springs vineyard, farm, and winery are).
2. ORIGIN SERIES ... Limited single-appellation bottlings showcasing each AVA's unique microclimate, geographical features, and growing conditions.
3. PLANET OREGON ... affordable, delicious, organically-grown wines from the Willamette Valley, ready to drink tonight.
Home of some of the planet’s most amazingly elegant and expressive Pinot noir, the Willamette Valley is a pastoral, mixed landscape of green, bucolic rolling hills, dramatic forestlands and small, independent, friendly wine growers. As a leader in environmental stewardship, the valley has some of the nation’s most protective land use policies, with two-thirds of its vineyards farmed sustainably and over half, organically. While the valley claims a cool, continental climate, and is heavily influenced by the cold, moist winds of the Pacific Ocean, its warm and dry summers allow for the steady, even ripening of Pinot noir.
The potential of Willamette Valley Pinot noir continues to attract the investment of serious growers and winemakers both locally and from abroad, as naturally the finished wines bring accolades from professionals and enthusiasts. With a range of styles from delicate dried cherry, raspberry and hibiscus to stronger notes of truffle, mocha, plum and spice, a fine Willamette Valley Pinot noir is a perfect expression of both character and grace.